The Daily Verse
To make The Wise Owl more dynamic, we have introduced The Daily Verse, a segment where we will upload poetry all days of the week. Just send in a poem to editor@thewiseowl.art
Theme for May
Transformation
Monay, 20th May, 2024
The River dries
By Chayanika Saikia
The river d(r)ies
to the fish bones.
Three birds feathered down,
transpose into water
percolating beneath a stone-ground
(where young fishes practice swimming;
soon, downstream they would plunge).
Spring is a burial song,
(of) old flowing into the new.
About the Author
Chayanika Saikia's work has appeared in Muse India, Petrichor (Pebbles), Yearbook of Indian Poetry in English 2022 (Hawakal), Madras Courier (forth-coming), Café Dissensus, PikerPress, EKL REVIEW, hākārā, Setu (Pittsburgh), The Assam Tribune, Parcham, Y a w p, The Little Journal of Northeast India, New York Parrot, Indian Periodical etc. and in anthologies like ‘Varna Vaibhav’ (Asom Sahitya Sabha), ‘The Kali Project’, ‘Poetry Unites’, 'Antargatha', 'Ismat' etc. "Mimosa Land (WissenMonk, 2023) and ‘Kor pora kho loi’ (e-kolom Asom Prakashan, 2022) are her poetry collections. She is the founder/editor of popular Assamese e-magazine 'Katha-kanchan'.
About the Author
A native of Tennessee, Dan Hardison now lives in Wilmington, North Carolina where he is a writer and artist. Dan's artwork is inspired by Japanese woodblocks and ink painting (sumi-e). As an artist and writer, he is drawn to the Japanese haiga – a combination of image and poem. This has led to recent work creating handmade artist books. His writing is primarily in the Japanese short form of haiku and haibun, and has appeared at Frogpond, Cattails, Contemporary Haibun Online, Drifting Sands, and other print and online journals. Dan's work can be found on his website 'Windscape Studio' and blog 'Some Tomorrow’s Morning.'
Thursday, 16th May, 2024
the grieving gone
cicada husks
filling with rain
another long walk
through the cemetery
spring leaves
the pulse of a lighthouse
on a stormy sea
the mother's final push
Wednesday, 15th May, 2024
On A Summer Evening Walk in San Marcos, Texas, I Remember Mary Oliver
By Oscar Houck
The midnight moon, full and gracious,
has softened the river from its deep greens and blues
to silver.
Crickets and cicadas in the cottonwoods
set up a metallic cacophony such that
if I didn't know better,
I would think I was
walking through a machine.
Maybe a giant watch,
with all its internal gears
whirring and clicking.
But I do know better.
This is a church,
where the congregants
speak in tongues
that only they can understand.
And the fireflies are votive candles,
whose yellow-gold radiance
flickers against
the indigo night sky,
where someone
has spread salt,
incandescent grains of starlight,
the way farmers used to broadcast seed, by hand,
over the fallow soil of spring.
The river
is one long, baptismal font of motion.
It whispers vespers,
in the low murmur
of water over stones.
The priest however, has gone missing
and so,
the liturgy is left to us.
The world is so obviously alive
despite our best efforts to destroy it.
And we have been allowed herein spite of it all,
to worship.
Let us pray to the mystery
we are a part of,
rather than trying
to own it.
For every day here is a gift and holy.
And every night here is holy.
Amen.
Tuesday, 14th May, 2024
shattered
in an instant…
after the fall
lenticular clouds
slowly drift by
how gentle
the wind caresses
the birch
this longing to hold you
again in my arms
regret slips in
like an old friend
why do I
always choose
the hardest path
Monday, 13th May, 2024
On the Face of it
By Hester L. Furey
Not being facile, as people think,
Or that other word, the one he slung
Like an axe and severed us,
Threw away that future,
Like any man bearing cudgels.
Fascia holds organs in place around
Bones, binds and bounds,
Stretches and shrivels,
Sticks when I am rigid, snaps
Like any woman with a tongue long bitten.
Unshackled, unstoried after asana, having left
Behind all thoughts of who I am,
What fiction factions me.
Beneath my eye skin, coolness, fresh air flutters,
A breath that means I moved, let go, grew.
I am no one again.
My tongue is soft.
Friday, 10th May, 2024
There has been rain for days
and even weary flowers
are longing for the sun.
Finally the rain stops
and through a break in the clouds
the arch of a rainbow is revealed –
a promise.
About the Author
A native of Tennessee, Dan Hardison now lives in Wilmington, North Carolina where he is a writer and artist. Dan's artwork is inspired by Japanese woodblocks and ink painting (sumi-e). As an artist and writer, he is drawn to the Japanese haiga – a combination of image and poem. This has led to recent work creating handmade artist books. His writing is primarily in the Japanese short form of haiku and haibun, and has appeared at Frogpond, Cattails, Contemporary Haibun Online, Drifting Sands, and other print and online journals. Dan's work can be found on his website 'Windscape Studio' and blog 'Some Tomorrow’s Morning.'
Thursday, 9th May 2024
like an old banyan
going deep into its roots
Benares visit
on the grass
swinging my arms to & fro
tai chi morning
sandalwood smoke
blowing in the breeze
Manikarnika
About the Author
Rupa Anand is a spiritual seeker and a published writer of experiences. Writing since 2008, her poems are an expression of images, thoughts, ideas, emotions and events that somehow get etched upon her mind and psyche. She says “There is magic in Nature. I hope my poems will connect readers with the beauty and calm of the natural world." Rupa has a BA (Hons) in English Literature from Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi. A cancer survivor, she lives in New Delhi with her husband, daughter and beloved cat
Wednesday, 8th May, 2024
Mind,
The placid pool
Turns murky
With the blowing winds.
Leaves scatter, fly
Trees struggle to stand
They bend, ready to fall
Like an old woman
With blown hair
Clouds move fast
Darkness descends
Then it rains, pours, floods
A grand chaos on the earth
For an hour, stops,
The sky is clear again
As though nothing happened
Except for the inner transformation.
About the Author
Geeta Varma is a poet based in Chennai. She has worked as a teacher and freelance journalist for some time. She has to her credit two books of poems and is a regular contributor to a few online magazines. She lives in Neelankarai with her husband Shreekumar Varma and has two sons, Vinayak married to Yamini, and Karthik.
Tuesday, 7th May, 2024
he prunes
the old sour cherry tree…
a chrysalis waiting for wings
after the earthquake -
and yet the cherry tree
in bloom
deep green…
the sky fills
with song
sky ripens…
one cherry redder
than the other
About the Author
Steliana Cristina Voicu lives in Ploieşti, Romania and loves painting, poetry, Japanese culture, photography and astronomy. Her haiku, tanka, haiga, poetry, short-prose have been published worldwide, including Asahi Haikuist Network, Daily Haiga, The Wise Owl-The Daily Verse, Under the Bashō, Chrysanthemum and others. She is founder and editor of Enchanted Garden Haiku Journal-Romania.
Monday, 6th May, 2024
Like a chrysalis moon, I emerge out of my yesteryears, with nostalgia dripping from my veins.
I look for a home far away from home
like a rootless man seeking a sense of belonging to a place.
As I stand by my window and gaze outside
threadbare memories look for sunshine on a frosty noon,
their faint murmur is like the bourdon note of yesterday.
From the other end of the horizon, a new tomorrow beckons me,
I trundle along to hold its hand.
A yesterday wrapped in camaraderie walks past me
and vanishes into the silence of a late winter evening.
As the last train leaves the station,
I prepare to leave yesterday behind
like the old geometry box that I no longer need.
On my way back, a Gulmohar reminds me,
‘Every end is a new beginning’.
I metamorphose into a butterfly moon.
About the Author
Debarati Sen is a recipient of the ‘Poiesis Award for Excellence in Poetry -2023’, and the Sylvia Plath Women's Literary Award. A poet from Kolkata, she writes both long verses and haiku. She has recently been declared the winner of NaPoWriMo 2023 by the Elite Book Awards. She has published two solo poetry collections and has contributed to more than 10 anthologies. Her haiku has been published in various international journals. Her latest collection of poems, Saudade, was brought out by Penprints in 2022.
THE DAILY VERSE POETS
Click hyperlink to read
Burst of Colours by Amrita Mallik
Haiku on Colours by Steliana Voicu
The Sky Over the Ganga by Satbir Chadha
Life is like a box of chocolates by Petrouchka Alexieva Haiku on Colours by Govind Joshi
Music of the Lake by Peter Witt
How do I feed my marriage by Bruce Whitacre
Light & Shadow by Carolyn Crossly
Haiku on Light & Shadow by Govind Joshi
Towards Mutualism by James Penha
Haiku by Steliana Cristina Voicu
Haiku by Satyanarayana Chittaluri
More Haiku with Titles by Tomh Bakelas
The Summoning by Kathleen Chamberlin
A Visitor by Kathleen Chamberlin
Haiku with Titles by Tomh Bakelas
The Night Sky by Debra S Mascarenhas